A 2.9-mile pipeline with the capacity to move up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day from Cat Canyon into the Phillips 66 pipeline was approved by the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on March 11.
The ERG-sponsored pipeline would run through the towns of Garey and Sisquoc, rerouting transportation of oil from the approximately 7,300 trucks that roll through the small towns each year into two 8-inch pipes that would run along Foxen Canyon Road and Santa Maria Mesa Road.
One of the reasons for the proposed pipeline is the anticipation of increased production in Cat Canyon on ERG’s site and others. ERG recently proposed the drilling of 233 cyclically steamed oil wells, which would be in addition to the 178 active wells that ERG pumps 2,200 barrels of oil a day out of, as well as other capped wells on the property that ERG could bring back to life. The new project is in the initial planning stages.
Without the pipes, ERG would continue to depend on trucking for oil transportation, and the number of trucks going back and forth to Cat Canyon would increase. County planner Erin Briggs said the choice between transportation alternatives is a simple one for the county.
“Pipelines are the county’s preferred transportation option for oil,” Briggs said during the commission meeting.
The pipeline would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oil-carrying trucks. However, there’s also the potential for pipeline ruptures, which concerned county resident Janet Blevins, who said a leak in the pipeline could spill much more oil into the landscape than one truck accident would. Blevins added that supporting a project like this is a step in the opposite direction of supporting alternative energy production in the county.
Planning Commissioner Cecilia Brown, District 2, said that she could see Blevins point, but was also impressed with the way ERG went about planning the project—especially because ERG has already started mitigating for the environmental impacts associated with the project.
“Unfortunately the strides we make on alternative energy are slow, probably a lot slower than we’d all like them to be,” Brown said. “We’re here today to talk about this project.”
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2015.